The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1887-01-12


have forgotten the particulars; but the
silver tip next to it, lighting fresh
pipe and pointing out the one designat-
ed, "while not so big as any Of the
others, was the toughest customer of
them all and weighed, when dressed,
nigh on thousand pounds. There are
three distinct kind of bears in this coun-
try, and also fourth kind, mongrel
species. There are the grizzly, the Gin
namon, and the black bear; then comes
the fourth already mentioned, called
the silver tip, cross between the
grizzly and the cinnamon, and the most
dangerous of them all, for he possesses
the foreclosures of the former, while
he has all the activity of the latter.
The silver tip seldom comes down
out of the mountains but lives
habitually in high latitudes, and
subsists for the most part on the
flesh of the animals he kills. The
grizzly also eats flesh, but he is fond of
berries too. The. cinnamon eats only
roots and herbs, while the black bear
makes regular descents among the foot
hills and in the valleys searching for.
honey and berries A black bear was
discovered last fall on the prairie about
four miles from Fort Missoula. Some
of the soldiers discovered him and gave
chase, and they actually rounded that
fellow up, preventing him from getting
back into the mountains, until he was
driven smack into the fort, where he
was killed on the parade ground.
"But, speaking of them skins over
there, I'll tell you the whole story just
as it happened to myself. 1t was
somewhere about ten years ago, when
was prospecting over in the neighbor-
hood of Deadwood, that ! belonged to
party of four who had agreed to work
that year in partnership. We struck
out one morning from camp for days
work among the mountains, each fell
low going in different directions, and
agreeing to meet that night in Dead
wood to compare notes and share the
finds among all alike. I started up the
gulch, following an old Indian trail
four miles or better, then branched of
up the mountain side to see if ! couldn't
find the mother of rich piece of rock
which l had picked up in the
gulch the day previous, and which
was just sparkling with pyrites of gold,
iron and lead. 1t was about two O'Clock
in the afternoon, when was making
my way out of the mountains and back
to join the boys, that l came to a thicket
of quaking asps. Now, Ihave seen asps
quake often, and have seen them quake
so hard, too, that an Eastern bummer's
jim-jams is nothing to the way those
trees shake; but the little thicket in
front of me was just attending AND
a-howling as if a forty-mile wind was
blowing through it. Says I to myself
old boy, you've got an elk; you've got
an elk, and no mistake; SO look SHARP
to your gun and the meat is yours.
Slipping six cartridges into The
magazine, cooked my gun, and hold
ing it ready, crept softly through the
bushes to see what kind of a circus was
going ON.
"You can believe me or not, stranger
but as sure as Moses was snapped il
the bulrushes, clear me out for tender
foot, but I saw three bears in a little
clearing going at it hammer and tongs
fighting to the death. Two of then
were cinnamon mates and the othel
was silver tip. Lord, how the fur die
fly! The plucky silver tip would slal
first one and then the other. The Gin
namon cusses didn't seem to have sens
enough to tackle the big mongrel to
gether, but they came up one at time
only to get dose which the other fellow
always had ready for them. The silve
tip knocked them out every time ant
won every round just as he pleased
Pretty soon the pair began to weaken
and then old Ephraim put in his lick
thick and fast. He knocked the NAL
flat and proceeded to hug the other
He simply squeezed the life out of her
for 1 could hear bones snap and cracl
from where / was hid. The male b,
this time had recovered few Of hi
senses and sat upon his launches like
dog to see how the day was going; bu
the wise old silver tip, dropping the fe
male for minute, walked over t.
where the dazed brute was squatte'
and brought him such a whack besid
the head with his big paw that the poo
fellow never did get over it. He simpl,
rolled over on the. ground and die
without another protest.
Il was much interested in the out
come, and remained an anxious spec
tator of events to see what the victo
would do now that both enemies wer
slain. Smelling of each and rollin
them over to see if thoroughly dead, h
went to work in business-like name
to cache the bodies. Becoming Statistic
that life was extinct, he seized the fe
male by the back of the neck and dragge
her off to point about forty yard
distant, when he halted, droppe
his burden and began to paw industri
ously at the ground. He worked ava,
until a large hole had been scooped out
when he rolled the body into it an
covered the same with brush, twig:
leaves and dirt. By this time | bega1
to understand what the willy old felloy
was about. He was simply laying in